February 22, 2022
VSEA issued the following press release this afternoon:
With VSEA’s support, two Department for Children and Families (DCF) temporary workers have filed an unfair labor practice (ULP) to challenge their temporary classification. In addition, VSEA has sent a letter to Department of Human Resources (DHR) Commissioner Fastiggi, reporting on VSEA’s findings from more than three years of data collection on statewide temporary employment.
The two employees, Mallory McGurn and Mary Collins, work a regular, part-time schedule every week, recruiting and supporting foster parents. They have worked in their jobs for more than two years, and the work is expected to continue indefinitely. The State has seized on their part-time status and declared them to be “temporary”, depriving them of any legal rights, leave benefits, or step increases that would be provided to them as non-temporary employees.
The data, which was analyzed by VSEA Second Vice President Leslie Matthews, Ph.D. and General Counsel Tim Belcher, shows that the State employs hundreds of employees in ongoing jobs, working a significant number of hours on a regular basis, and deprives them of rights and benefits by misclassifying them as temporary workers. Some have worked in this capacity for years and even decades.
VSEA says that this pattern of misclassification harms the individuals involved, but also harms the public. These employees do not enjoy the benefit of being a classified employee, therefore they do not benefit from the rules and regulations in place to govern public employment. Those rules ensure that employees are hired and retained based on merit and performance, and that the employees in turn are protected from abuse or other improper discrimination. By pretending to the public that these jobs are temporary, the State masks the true size and growth of government employment.
VSEA recognizes the value of legitimate temporary employment, but the State owes more to the hundreds of “temporary” employees who are devoting significant parts of their work lives to public service.
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